USPTO Patents Application 09895654

United States Patent and Trademark Office

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov

APPLICATION NO.

FILING DATE

FIRST NAMED INVENTOR

ATTORNEY DOCKET NO.

CONFIRMATION NO.

09/895,654

06/28/2001

7590

03/16/2005

Christopher W. Kennerly
Baker Botts L.L.P.
Suite 600

2001 Ross Avenue
Dallas, TX 75201

Manoel Tenorio

020431.0841

6772

EXAMINER

RJMELL, SAMUEL G

ART UNIT

PAPER NUMBER

2165

DATE MAILED: 03/16/2005

Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.

PTO-90C (Rev. 10/03)

Office Action Summary

Application No.

09/895,654

Applicant(s)
TENORIO, MANOEL

Examiner

Sam Rimell

Art Unit

2165

~ The MAILING DATE of this communication appears on the cover sheet with the correspondence address —
Period for Reply

A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE 3 MONTH(S) FROM
THE MAILING DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.

- Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1.136(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed
after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- If the period for reply specified above is less than thirty (30) days, a reply within the statutory minimum of thirty (30) days will be considered timely.

- If NO period for reply is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 1 33).
Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any
earned patent term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(b).

Status

1 )□ Responsive to communication(s) filed on .

2a)D This action is FINAL. 2b)E3 This action is non-final.

3) D Since this application is in condition for allowance except for formal matters, prosecution as to the merits is

closed in accordance with the practice under Ex parte Quayle, 1935 CD. 11, 453 O.G. 213.

Disposition of Claims

4) ^ Claim(s) 1-28 is/are pending in the application.

4a) Of the above claim(s) is/are withdrawn from consideration.

5) D Claim(s) is/are allowed.

6) [E] Claim(s) 7-28 is/are rejected.

7) 0 Claim(s) is/are objected to.

8) Q Claim(s) are subject to restriction and/or election requirement.

Application Papers

9) D The specification is objected to by the Examiner.

10)D The drawing(s) filed on is/are: a)D accepted or b)D objected to by the Examiner.

Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1 .85(a).

Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121(d).
1 !)□ The oath or declaration is objected to by the Examiner. Note the attached Office Action or form PTO-152.

Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119

12)D Acknowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (f).
a)D All b)D Some * c)D None of:

1 .□ Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.

2.Q Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No. .

3-D Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage
application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
* See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.

Attachment(s)

1 ) ^ Notice of References Cited (PTO-892)

2) O Notice of Draftsperson's Patent Drawing Review (PTO-948)

3) ^ Information Disclosure Statement(s) (PTO-1449 or PTO/SB/08)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date .

SAM RIMELL
PRIMARY EXAMINER

4) O Interview Summary (PTO-413)

Paper No(s)/Mail Date. .

5) CH Notice of Informal Patent Application (PTO-152)

6) □ Other: .

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
PTOL-326 (Rev. 1-04)

Office Action Summary

Part of Paper No./Maii Date 20050314

Application/Control Number: 09/895,654
Art Unit: 2165

Page 2

Preliminary Notes: Applicant's response of 11/30/04 appears to include a request for
clarification, given that the application was previously assigned to a different examiner and
subject to different action. The following clarifications are herewith submitted:

1) The examiner of record is Sam Rimell, Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2165.

2) The restriction requirement has been vacated.

3) Applicant is required to respond to the present office action.

4) This office action is non-final.

The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the
basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:

A person shall be entitled to a patent unless -

(e) the invention was described in (1) an application for patent, published under section 122(b), by another filed
in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent or (2) a patent granted on an application for
patent by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent, except that an
international application filed under the treaty defined in section 351(a) shall have the effects for purposes of this
subsection of an application filed in the United States only if the international application designated the United
States and was published under Article 21(2) of such treaty in the English language.

Claims 1-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(e) as being anticipated by Tenorio et al.
(U.S. Patent 6,708,161).

The reference patent to Tenorio et al. is applicable to the claims of the present invention
because it has an earlier effective filing date (9/26/00) as well as a different inventive entity (a
different set of inventors). When not all of the inventors are the same between the reference
patent and the application, the inventive entity is different, and rejections under 35 USC 102(e)
may become applicable (See MPEP 2136.04).

Claim 1: FIG. 1, Global Content Directory (42) functions as the claimed mapping
module. As described at col. 6, lines 12-28, the source schema is the relational database (32)
operated by a seller. The target schema is the hierarchical directory shown in FIG. 2.

Application/Control Number: 09/895,654 Page 3

Art Unit: 2165

The source schema includes a product ontology, which is a set of product classes (classes
of products, such as "Pens") and product attributes ("product data associated with a product" at
col . 5, lines 14-15. For example "ball-point" or "felt-tip" are product attributes of pens).

The target schema (FIG. 2) includes product classes (48, 50) in the hierarchy and product
attributes (the descriptors "Indirect Material" and "Direct Material").

The classes of the source schema and target schema are associated by the use of pointers
(col. 6, lines 15-21).

The generated product ontology is the generated list of classes, such as (48), (50), (58),
and (60a-60c) shown in FIG. 2.

Claim 2: Column 6, lines 58-64 describe a user making a selection of a class, which is
user input indicating a target class that will become associated with a source class in the seller
database. The pointers in the system (col. 6, lines 15-21) will then associate the target class to the
source class and return search results into the target schema.

Claim 3: FIG.2 illustrates a graphical representation of the taxonomies of the source and
target schemas presented together. For example, a target class, such as "Indirect Material" in the
target schema is associated with a source class deriving from a seller's database, such as "Pens",
that corresponds to pen products in the seller's database. This information is communicated to
the user via the graphical interface of FIG. 2.

Claim 4: Classes such as "ball-point", "felt-tip" and "roller-ball" are leaf classes (leaf
nodes) in the schema.

Claim 5 : Target classes such as "Indirect Material" (50) and source classes, such as
"Pens" will intersect each other in the sense that they are linked by pointers (col. 6, lines 12-28).

Application/Control Number: 09/895,654 Page 4

Art Unit: 2165

These pointers will lead to the generation of product ontologies, such as that shown in FIG. 2.
The target classes and source classes can also be viewed as intersecting each other by reason that
they are related to each other on a hierarchical tree.

Claim 6: FIG. 2 illustrates a parent class, such as "Industry Standard Schema" (46) and a
target class, such as "Direct Material" (48). The parent class and target will intersect each other
in the sense that they are related to each other on a hierarchical tree.

Claim 7: The seller ontology is the list of products in the seller's databases (col. 6, line
18), such as ball-point pens or felt-tip pens. Attributes for such products would be, for example,
"ball-point" or "felt-tip". The seller ontologies are integrated into the hierarchy of FIG. 2 (items
60a-60b).

Claim 8: Pointers are used to point to products in the seller's databases (col. 6, lines 12-
28). The pointers will create associations between target classes, such as "Indirect Material" and
classes of products in the seller's databases, such as "Pens".

Claim 9: See remarks for claim 1.

Claim 10: See remarks for claim 2.

Claim 11: See remarks for claim 3.

Claim 12: See remarks for claim 4.

Claim 13: See remarks for claim 5.

Claim 14: See remarks for claim 6.

Claim 15: See remarks for claim 7.

Claim 16: See remarks for claim 8.

Claim 17: See remarks for claim 1.

Application/Control Number: 09/895,654
Art Unit: 2165

Page 5

Claim 18: See remarks for claim 2.

Claim 19: See remarks for claim 3.

Claim 20: See remarks for claim 4.

Claim 21: See remarks for claim 5.

Claim 22: See remarks for claim 6.

Claim 23: See remarks for claim 7.

Claim 24: See remarks for claim 8.

Claim 25: See remarks for claim 1 .

Claim 26: See remarks for claim 1-3 and 8.

Claim 27: See remarks for claims 1-3 and 8.

Claim 28: See remarks for claims 1-3 and 8.

Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to Sam Rimell at

telephone number (571) 272-4084.

Sam Rimell
Primary Examiner

Art Unit 2165